Campus News
Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s blog: Commitment to investing in mental health
October 27th, 2020
This week I wanted to touch on the issue of mental health. It goes without saying that the pandemic has affected all of us in different ways.
Some of our academic colleagues have carried out research into the impact on frontline workers as well as investigating the links between stress, depression and COVID-19 among the general population.
Colleagues in student support roles have been heavily involved in a City-led campaign around preventing suicide and self-harm among students and we expect, from our own and national data, a greater demand for student wellbeing and support than normal.
We recognise the circumstances relating to the pandemic and the loss of physical social interaction will challenge everyone and that is why we are have made a significant investment to support our wellbeing offer.
The challenges
The University’s own current student survey with 5,376 respondents told us that 82% of them have struggled with their mental health and this has had an impact on their ability to study. Subsequently we expect our new students, post A-level debacle and with increasing pressure to adhere to social distancing requirements, to have far higher levels of stress and anxiety than normal.
For those returning, being back promises a solution to many concerns – being around friends again and in a familiar environment – however the changes we know we are making to incorporate social distancing, increases in online teaching and reduction in facilities students might otherwise enjoy on and off campus mean the environment alone will not be enough. For those coming for the first time, their longstanding expectations of University will be different from the reality of their experience.
Our investment
We have increased capacity in our Mental Health team which is a team of specialist practitioners embedded within the Cripps Medical Centre but operated by Campus Life. These specialists work with those at greatest risk of significant mental ill health.
We’ve focused on making it easier for students to find help with a new set of web pages coupled with providing greater early interventions through pooling of wellbeing officer appointments across the University- this means that rather than being school-specific we now have backup from the whole team to ensure we are available to students and can meet demand. Through the new shared website we can help students find the right support and have set up contact numbers, faculty emails and a live chat facility that also pool resource to make that same resource reach further.
We can now offer up to 300 new style short appointments a week (albeit virtual in many cases) for students to speak about a problem or issue and then either resolve it there, be advised of self-help or be supported in accessing more advanced forms of intervention such as counselling. These appointments will be bookable online to mitigate the need to ‘pop in’ when social distancing does not allow such engagement.
In addition, we are recording demand to give real-time management information and help us provide a more responsive approach.
Our colleagues in Sport have been planning an option for open to all activity given sport is widely recognised as an effective therapy for low-level anxiety or depression. And we continue to develop self-help resources and health improvement information and activities via our Healthy U campaign.
24/7 support
The Students’ Union continue to provide support through their advice services and Nightline service, with the latter offering peer support from 7pm to 8am. We also offer out-of-ours emergency support via Security and in halls via the Wardens and Hall tutors.
To supplement all of this we will be introducing a 24/7 online support system. The service will focus on self and peer help – providing a scalable solution for many students using technology they use in their daily lives. In addition to practical support we hope it will also provide additional reassurance to parents.
While much of this support focuses on students we hope in strengthening these systems we will be able to increase the capacity for staff wishing to access our counselling service, which is an integral part of our provision.
Changes to Recovery Board
This will be my last update as Chair of the Recovery Board. As our academic term is now well underway we have moved our focus from preparations for start of session and will be establishing a new board to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 more generally. I will share updates from these meetings, as appropriate, going forwards.
Finally I am delighted to report the outcome of a very positive Health and Safety Executive visit last week. The HSE were satisfied that the University Covid-Secure measures met their standards and raised no concerns – which is the best outcome we could have achieved. This is down to the hard work of our health and safety team working closely with so many of you. Thank you to everyone involved, and to all of those who are working with and following our guidelines to make sure our campus is safe for everyone.
Professor Andy Long
Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Tags: coronavirus support, deputy vice chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor's blog, DVC blog, mental health, recovery, support
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New IT Self Service portal and IT Website coming soon
October 27th, 2020
From January 2021, Information Services will be releasing a new Self Service portal and re-imagining the current IT website.
New Self Service portal
The transformational project to replace the existing IT service management tools has been continuing this year. Information Services were due to introduce a new IT customer service platform, Ivanti Service Manager (ISM) this October. This has now been re-scheduled to January 2021.
The current Self Service portal has served the University well over the years but has not kept up with the times in terms of automation, customer experience and integration to other systems and University processes.
ISM aims to introduce streamlined workflows and tasks to ensure your support requests and incidents are directed with greater efficiency.
For IT support requests there will be a brand-new Self Service portal, with a modern user interface and a distinct set of service offerings to pick from. Details on how to use the new portal will be published as we approach the switch over in January 2021.
In addition to this, Information Services will be removing the use of email to raise new IT support requests via the IT Service Desk or Campus IT Support. While this may sound a big change, it offers a lot of benefits for both customers and IT staff. Email can lead to long queues and response times and often the information required to resolve is not captured up front and visibility of progress is lost.
You can still phone the team if you need help. Phone calls are recommended if your issue is urgent or if you are not able to find quite what you want on the portal. Also, the virtual Smart Bar team are happy to support with quick queries or questions you may have.
New IT Website
Alongside this, the Information Services team have started a project to re-imagine the IT Services website. This piece of work will deliver a new IT website for release in January 2021. The new website will be much more user focused, introduce an improved service catalogue and link closely with the new Self Service portal. Furthermore, the website and Information Services department will potentially have a new name.
The team are gathering feedback from existing users of the website to ensure they make improvements for all customers via an online study comprising of a survey and online exercise. To help with this, please start the study here and complete by Thursday 19 November.
Your responses will help Information Services to re-imagine the content on the IT Services website and ensure users are provided with the right support to help find services, information and resolve IT queries.
Tags: customer service platform, Information Services, IT, IT Services, IT website, Self Service Portal
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UoN Football Club offers free school lunches
October 26th, 2020
UoN Football Club have teamed up with St Paul’s Roman Catholic Church to offer free school meals to eligible children this half-term, from Tuesday 27 October – Friday 30 October.
Lunch packs include:
- Sandwich (ham or cheese)
- Juice box
- Piece of fruit
- Packet of crisps
- Biscuit/chocolate bar
Packs will be available to collect from St Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, Lenton Boulevard, Lenton, NG7 2BY. Get in touch via UoN FC’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages to book or call +447703 507545. All messages and orders will remain anonymous.
Charity Sec, Max Adler, said: “Following the Government’s decision not to provide free school meals for school children over the half-term holidays, the University of Nottingham Football Club would like to help the community. We understand the difficult times we are living in and we firmly believe that no child should ever have to go hungry.”
Tags: UoN FC, UoN Football Club, UoN Sport
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University of Nottingham Museum awarded Culture Recovery Fund support
October 23rd, 2020
The University of Nottingham Museum has been awarded £61,160 as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future.
The University of Nottingham Museum was one of 588 cultural and creative organisations across the country who received urgently needed support on Saturday 17 October. Lakeside Arts also received £249,714 in the first round of the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Clare Pickersgill, Keeper, University of Nottingham Museum, said “we are grateful for this funding which will enable us to continue to offer different types of programming, both in the Museum and remotely, when we reopen on the 29 October. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to the Museum and working together in new ways.”
The Museum holds a collection of mainly regional archaeology covering a 250,000 year
period. Through its community, regional, national and international partnerships it offers a Learning and Public Programme including an Exhibition Programme.
The funding will enable the Museum to continue to develop its programme, working in different ways with schools and community groups, as well as supporting its reopening on Thursday 29 October.
The funding also allows the Museum to continue its collection development work, including preparing collections for future digital projects. Upcoming work in this area includes a collaboration with Digital Humanities and a Digital Heritage Programme as part of Nottingham Advantage Award.
The Museum is also moving forward with an exciting new collaboration with Creswell Crags (www.creswell-crags.org.uk) which also received support from the Culture Recover Fund. This includes funding to support a new partnership between Creswell Crags and the University of Nottingham Museum which will include the development of new schools programming and an exhibition at the Museum.
To find out more about the Museum, including details of the upcoming re-opening, visit the brand-new webpage.
Tags: culture, Culture recovery fund, Museum, University of Nottingham Museum
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New virtual town halls for researchers: update from Professor Dame Jessica Corner
October 23rd, 2020
As parts of our region prepare to enter tougher Tier 3 restrictions against the pandemic, which are expected to come into force next week, our absolute priority remains your safety and wellbeing.
Our Estates, Health and Safety and operations teams are continually monitoring the situation and the measures we have in place. We are confident that on-campus research and in-person teaching will be able to continue safely, in line with UK Government guidance.
I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to all the amazing colleagues who are supporting progress in the recovery of our research in the face of such ongoing challenges. The current crisis underlines our commitment to research and its power to help transcend complex problems and secure a better future.
I am therefore delighted to announce a further series of online town hall events to help develop our thinking on how our future research strategy and its goals can address such challenges. I do hope you can join me and colleagues from across the University to contribute your views.
Tags: professor dame jessica corner, recovery, research, Research recovery, Virtual town halls
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Professor Dame Jessica Corner: Supporting our postgraduate research students
October 23rd, 2020
Although we have been able to re-establish and grow our on-campus research over the last few months, we recognise the pandemic is continuing to have a severe impact on the studies of some of our postgraduate research students.
Be assured that we are continually monitoring the changing picture, including local and national restrictions and funder policies, and will review our policies as necessary to support PGRs in the best way possible.
Extensions of up to six months have been given to all UK doctoral PGRs whose registered period of study would have originally concluded between 1 March 2020 and 1 October 2021, and to all UK PGRs who entered ‘Thesis Pending’ on or after 30 September 2019. These extensions have no additional fees payable by the student.
Financial support is available to support extensions for University of Nottingham scholarship holders and UKRI, Wellcome Trust and British Heart Foundation-funded PGRs. To date extension funding has been awarded to over 300 PGRs. The decision to offer extension funding to UoN scholarship holders recognises the impact of the coronavirus crisis on highly valued members of our research community.
The University cannot yet make any commitments on extensions for PGRs whose registered period of study ends after 1 October 2021, or on stipend funding for UKRI or University of Nottingham-funded PGRs finishing after 31 March 2021. We are however speaking to funders about their future plans and in doing that, we are planning how to best support you. We expect that the University will revert to the normal process for managing extensions for PGRs whose registered period of study ends after 1 October 2021, while continuing to take the impact of Covid19 on your studies into account.
PGRs from diverse backgrounds may face additional challenges that arise during their period of doctoral research. In consultation with PGRs from across the University, The Researcher Academy has created a guide specifically for research supervisors that gives some helpful pointers of things to consider when supervising and supporting PGRs.
Exuberant Kinds (part of the ADAPT scheme) is a peer support group for international PhD students and may be helpful for those feeling isolated and struggling to stay on track with their work. Contact them through Moodle.
Our Graduate Centres are being reconfigured and re-opened when Covid-secure, to provide bookable study spaces for PGRs. Graduate Centres in Highfields House (Arts and Social Sciences) and in the Engineering and Science Learning Centre are currently open, and others will follow. Space in Graduate Centres will be available for booking on a referral basis for PGRs who do not have suitable home study environments, or who need space when on campus for periods between other commitments, such as lab work or demonstrating.
We are committed to engaging with our PGRs. Faculties are running local PGR Town Halls to keep you informed and continue conversations on improving your experience. A ‘Getting in Shape’ programme aimed at improving the postgraduate journey will start looking at and improving PGR processes next month. This will continue into the next year, with input and feedback from PGRs central to its delivery.
Finally, the research team and I would like to offer our sincere support to all our staff, postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers and students who are affected by the recent distressing events in Nigeria. If you are in need of help or support at this time, please contact your supervisor or line manager, and for PGRs, supervisors, PGR director or Researcher Academy Faculty Lead.
Professor Dame Jessica Corner
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange
Tags: PGRs, postgraduate research, Postgraduate research students, professor dame jessica corner, research, UKRI
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Coronavirus test centre open on Jubilee campus
October 22nd, 2020
A new coronavirus test centre has opened on Jubilee campus.
Tests can be booked by either ringing 119 or booking via the NHS website. Anyone with symptoms of coronavirus, however mild, can get a free swab test that takes less than a minute.
The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are:
- a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
- a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
- a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal
The new site is hosted by the University of Nottingham, in the grounds of the dual-use car park at the rear of Southwell Hall. It is designed for people to access either on foot or bike, not by car and therefore parking will not be available. Access to the centre is via Triumph Road only. You can see the new testing centre marked as Public Health England Testing Station on this map.
Those being tested will be required to follow public health measures, including social distancing, not travelling by taxi or public transport, practising good personal hygiene and wearing a face covering throughout (including travelling to and from the testing centre).
Testing at the new site is now live and the facility is open to staff, students as well as members of the local community.
Tags: coronavirus, COVID testing, COVID-19, COVID-19 testing, testing centre
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Timetable changes for public buses serving our campuses
October 22nd, 2020
Both the No.31 and No.34 services have seen a significant reduction in patronage and as such NCT are putting in place the following changes:
- No.31 Service to Jubilee Campus will be suspended after service on Friday 23 October. Connectivity to the campus will be retrained by No.28 and No.30 that stop outside campus on Wollaton Road.
- No.34 service to University Park will operate to a revised timetable from Sunday 25 October. Buses will operate every 15 minutes Monday to Friday during peak times and every 30 minutes at all other times, including evenings and weekends. The new timetable is available on the NCT website.
Tags: NCT, Nottingham City Transport
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Keeping the UK and Nottingham at the forefront of European research collaboration
October 21st, 2020
Although the immediate priority has been mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the University and our staff, we haven’t forgotten the importance of maintaining and building on our European research collaboration.
As UK/EU trade negotiations continue, colleagues in the University’s Global and Political Affairs Unit have been working with others in the sector to push for the best possible outcome for research collaboration.
We are forging closer institutional ties to important partner universities in Europe, such as the University of Tübingen, opening up new collaboration and funding opportunities. And whilst we are still eligible, we’ve been responding to European research calls at a good rate, and colleagues are urged to continue to do so. Details of support available can be found below, as well as potentially emerging domestic opportunities.
EU-funded research collaboration
Securing UK participation in the successor to the EU’s Horizon 2020 research collaboration programme, Horizon Europe, remains a priority for the University and the research community more broadly. We will keep pushing for this even when UK/EU relations appear strained. We have joined together with organisations from the Wellcome Trust to the Royal Society to produce a statement suggesting ways forward in the negotiations on Horizon Europe participation, which you can find here.
Association to Horizon Europe is the best way of ensuring we do not lose the benefits of scientific partnerships built up over decades, as well as providing a springboard to collaboration with the rest of the world. The University’s support for the statement is shown through the Russell Group signatory and I’m proud our University had a hand in its drafting.
In the meantime, the University is supporting activity in response to the remaining Horizon 2020 calls this year, for which the UK remains fully eligible to apply under the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, with any UK participations in successful projects funded for their full duration by the European Commission as usual. Nottingham has seen record numbers of applications to the recent European Research Council Advanced Grant and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships calls.
Tübingen university
The European Green Deal call is the last and biggest call under Horizon 2020, worth a total of €1 billion and with a deadline in January 2021. The Green Deal call offers the opportunity for collaborative consortium responses in a variety of areas related to green and digital transformations, many of which overlap with Nottingham’s research strengths, and is a great chance to continue collaborations with existing European partners or to instigate new ones.
It’s worth noting that the government has promised funding to allow participation in Horizon Europe Programmes open to Third Countries such as most of the collaborative streams, making the development of contacts in high quality European Institutions a fruitful undertaking for the medium to long term, even if the UK does not formally participate in Horizon Europe as an “associate country”.
Please contact Matt Rackley if you’re interested in any of these calls, as support is available.
Bilateral European research partnerships
At the same time as supporting sector-wide efforts to get the best deal on EU-funded research collaboration, we are working on bilateral arrangements with partners in Europe and invite you to get in touch where we might do more of this.
Partnering with European universities can allow UK researchers to benefit from domestic and internal funding schemes, independent of EU funding. One benefit of closer partnership with the University of Tübingen, for example, is the ability to submit joint and collaborative bids to the German Research Foundation and German Academic Exchange Service, and in some cases parallel bids to UK funding bodies, strategically aligning separately funded projects with common research aims through international partnership to enhance activity. Evidencing institutional partnerships could also support funding proposals. Closer partnership can also lead to mutually beneficial institutional opportunities, such as Tübingen offering Nottingham early career researchers in priority thematic areas places on internally funded initiatives.
Other opportunities
Work is ongoing in government to create a new Discovery Fund to provide a UK alternative to the curiosity-driven and excellence-focused elements of Horizon Europe, in the event the UK does not associate to the programme. We understand first applications to the Fund would likely be in Spring 2021 and would urge colleagues to plan for this. There is also a proposed uplift in funding for the Learned Societies for existing professorial and fellowship schemes. Again, colleagues are advised to prepare for this.
Even in these testing times, it is vital we continue to explore research collaboration with our closest neighbours, as well as those further afield. As ever, please do get in touch if you have any thoughts about how we can best do this.
Tags: EU funding, European Research Council, Green Deal, research
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The Breakfast Club 2020-21 – Wednesday 4th November
October 21st, 2020
The University of Nottingham’s annual Teaching and Learning Conference in 2020 saw record levels of submissions. Unfortunately due to the coronavirus it had to be cancelled.
The Breakfast Club was organised as a place where all of the excellent pedagogy developed by staff at the University could be showcased.
This first season of the Breakfast Club saw more than 1,000 attendees across the 17 sessions, with papers from every faculty, including colleagues from our China and Malaysian campuses. Following positive feedback, the Breakfast Club is returning for the 2020-21 academic year.
This year, the sessions will be organised throughout the year. You can sign up via Central Short Courses here.
The focus for this season will be effective pedagogy so if you have some excellent examples of effective innovative, creative or online pedagogical approaches you’d like to showcase, please do get in touch with Tina Byrom.
If you want to catch up on the excellent sessions from the first Breakfast Club, you can do so by self-enrolling on moodle here.
Session 1: Wednesday 4 November, 9am – 10AM GMT
May Tan-Mullins (UNNC) – Experiences of face to face teaching during post-Covid-19 at UNNC: the things we did and wished we had done
Kate Simpson (UoN) – Safe face-face teaching in Covid-19 times: balancing risks and benefits
Tags: pedagogy, Teaching and Learning Conference, Teaching and Learning Conference 2020, The Breakfast Club
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